Global Nerdy

“The street finds its own uses for things,” is a quote from William Gibson’s short story, Burning Chrome, which has become an often-quoted aphorism used to explain that people often find unintended uses for technology.

The term “Shadow IT” sounds like something that Gibson would’ve coined for one of his cyberpunk novels, but the term was most likely invented by IT pros. Shadow IT refers to systems or software used by people in an organization without the knowledge or approval of the IT department. A group of people opting to use a spreadsheet that they email back and forth instead of a company-approved means of storing and sharing crucial data (I know of at least one Fortune 50 company that does this), employees using Evernote and DropBox to share notes and files, an enterprising developer who builds an unsanctioned custom piece of software to simplify or automate an onerous task — all these are examples of shadow IT. As you’ve probably surmised from the term, IT departments take a dim view of these unsanctioned (and often unknown-to-them) tools and technologies.

You’ve probably already guessed some of the implications of shadow IT, some of which are:

• Security risks
• Inconsistencies and incompatibilities with company systems and methods
• Wasted investment in company systems
• Increased risk of data loss and leaks
• Animosity between employees and IT

With all these downsides and articles warning of the dangers of shadow IT, many of which have been explained to employees time and time again in emailed memos, employee manuals, and training sessions, why do they insist on using shadow IT?

This Dilbert cartoon explains it quite nicely:

In many companies, the IT department is seen as being like “Mordac, the Preventer of Information Services” from Dilbert. They’re the technology dictators, the people whose job seems to be to get in your way rather than help you get things done. That perception doesn’t just with employees, but with the people providing services that often make up shadow IT, such as 37signals, builders of web-based work tools. Here’s an excerpt from an article in their blog, titled The End of the IT Department, in which they talk about IT departments being replaced by tools like theirs and people’s increasing tech-savviness:

If businesses had as many gripes with an external vendor, that vendor would’ve been dropped long ago. But IT departments have endured as a necessary evil. I think those days are coming to an end.

The problem with IT departments seems to be that they’re set up as a forced internal vendor. From the start, they have a monopoly on the “computer problem” – such monopolies have a tendency to produce the customer service you’d expect from the US Postal Service. The IT department has all the power, they’re not going anywhere (at least not in the short term), and their customers are seen as mindless peons. There’s no feedback loop for improvement.

…

At the same time, IT job security is often dependent on making things hard, slow, and complex. If the Exchange Server didn’t require two people to babysit it at all times, that would mean two friends out of work. Of course using hosted Gmail is a bad idea! It’s the same forces and mechanics that slowly turned unions from a force of progress (proper working conditions for all!) to a force of stagnation (only Jack can move the conference chairs, Joe is the only guy who can fix the microphone).

…

You no longer need a tech person at the office to man “the server room.” Responsibility for keeping the servers running has shifted away from the centralized IT department. Today you can get just about all the services that previously required local expertise from a web site somewhere.

It’s no wonder that according to a recent study by Stratecast and Frost & Sullivan [842KB PDF, 13 pages], 80% of knowledge workers use software or services in their work that have not been officially cleared for use by IT. It’s not that they’re setting out to disobey IT or expose the company to risk; it’s just that they find the sanctioned tools don’t cut it, and that the IT department seems to refuse to respond to their needs. So they went out and found better, more suitable tools on their own initiative.

It’s time for IT departments to move through those stages of shadow IT-caused grief as quickly as possible to “acceptance”. As Arthur Cole says in his IT Business Edge article, Shadow IT: A Problem of IT’s Own Making:

As the traditional gatekeeper to data infrastructure, IT has long been viewed as a barrier to progress rather than an ally, and clamping down on shadow IT would simply perpetuate that view and pit IT against business units in a never-ending turf war. Or, IT could adopt a new role in the enterprise that stresses management of both internal and external resources, as well as things like contract negotiations and billing, as a means of providing a value-added service for the new distributed, software-defined data ecosystem.

And already, management platforms are incorporating the tools to do just that. CA, for example, recently launched the new CA Service Management system designed to afford business users the flexibility to compile their own mobile and collaborative environments while preserving centralized control for IT. The system provides a unified approach to accessing services, support and related assets, plus customizable support for mobile platforms like iOS and Android. As well, it promotes automated self-service, collaboration and knowledge-sharing as a means to propel enterprise resource delivery to the level that users have come to expect through their experiences with Amazon, Dropbox and other providers.

It seems, then, that shadow IT is neither friend nor foe, but simply a fact of life in the new data paradigm. If you try to fight it, you’ll probably lose, so for the sake of IT, and the enterprise in general, the best approach is to learn how to leverage it.

Adriana “Andi” Karaboutis, Dell’s Global CIO, encourages her fellow CIOs to Stop Chasing Shadow IT, and Start Chasing Innovation:

When you work in a technology company and have 110,000 best friends that understand technology well and probably even better than you do, you have to be out there working, listening and determining how you can create even more value for the employees and customers that you serve as opposed to being defensive about owning IT … It’s no longer good enough to just be there enabling them; it’s working together side-by-side to co-create value and power and enable the company together.

And finally, this CIO slideshow, Shadow IT: Onetime Hidden, Often Hated, But Well Worth Embracing, puts forth these five cases for embracing shadow IT:

1. Bandwidth: IT departments can only take on so much work, and third-party services can help lighten their load.
2. Requirements: Shadow IT simplifies the requirements-gathering phase because the people making the tech happen are the people who have to use it, and know the problems, processes, and needs.
3. Culture: Shadow IT provides a way for employees who have mastered the tools of the trade to gain some recognition for having done so.
4. Lubrication: It cuts down on the friction that so many smaller, lower-priority but still necessary projects and bottlenecks face because the payoff isn’t as visible or as big a deal as big, attention-getting “IT projects”.
5. Innovation: Shadow IT is sought out by people who believe that “good enough isn’t good enough”. You should be encouraging these mavericks, not stifling them!

The use of shadow IT at your company suggests that there are needs that aren’t being met, and that people are actively helping themselves and looking for solutions. You should view this as an opportunity to help them, and perhaps even to recast IT as an enabler rather than a barrier.

Google’s contact lens for diabetes patients, and Microsoft Research’s version from 2011

People with diabetes (who number almost 400 million worldwide) have a metabolic condition where they have high blood sugar either because they’re not producing enough insulin or because their cells don’t respond adequately to insulin. They manage their diabetes by checking their blood sugar levels several times a day, a process that usually involves some form of being poked with a needle.

Google’s latest announced research project is a contact lens that measures the glucose content of its wearer’s tears, which is a function of that person’s blood sugar level. The lens functions as a circuit board that houses the components and a circular gold foil antenna that lies outside the pupil’s visual range. Google says that their research wing, Google X, is working on the project not so they can eventually build and sell diabetes-monitoring contact lenses, but to publicize the work in order to find medical company partners to develop them.

As TechCrunch notes, Google’s not the first tech company to build such a product. Microsoft Research released this video that makes mention of a similar project back in 2011:

It turns out that a member of Microsoft Research who was working on their smart contact lens project, Babak Parvis (a former professor at University of Washington), is now at Google, where he works on Google Glass and the smart contact lens project. Once upon a time, the brain drain worked in the other direction, with Microsoft absorbing bright lights from other companies, including Anders Heljberg from Borland, who ended up revitalizing their programming tools and creating the C# programming language (which in my opinion, is an improvement on Java).

California tech entrepreneur beats “glassing while driving” ticket

Cecilia Abadie made history last year as the first driver to be given a traffic ticket for driving while using Google Glass, based on the California traffic law that states that you can’t drive while watching a monitor. She was initially pulled over for speeding on Interstate 15, but when the officer saw that she was wearing Google Glass, she was issued a second ticket for “driving while glassing”.

Both the speeding and “driving while using a visual monitor” charge were dropped by San Diego Court Commissioner John Blair for lack of evidence. The police office who ticketed Abadie matched her speed with his car, and an expert did not show up at court to testify to the calibration of his speedometer. Abadie also testified that her Google Glass was off when she was driving, and there was also no proof that the Glass was turned off at the time.

My guess is that a whole host of legal and social problems could be solved by building some kind of indicator into Google Glass and similar wearables that indicates to other people that it’s on, perhaps something like the light that comes on when the webcam on your laptop or desktop is active.

Chinese pirates see no upside in making knock-offs of wearables

Click the photo to see the cringeworthy ad it came from.

While working on a story where they went to China to learn how the tech “knock-off” industry works, CNN reports that tech counterfeiters, who only copy devices that will help them make a profit, are quite obviously not making copies of wearable mobile devices.

They note that at Shenzhen’s Huaqiangbei (pronounced “Wa-chang-bay”) commercial district, the place to go for original and copycat electronics and components, demand for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartwatch is “ice-cold”:

“You won’t find any copies of the smart watch here. I’ve never seen or heard of any,” said a young man who was busy shipping off boxes, that he said were filled with counterfeit mobile phones, at a local logistics center.

“Thinking about it, I’ve never even seen anyone wear one,” he added.

If you’re curious about Huaqiangbei, here’s an interesting video published in February 2013, where Bob Jordan from AsianOps takes a tour of the electronics mall:

Diesel Sweeties’ amusing take on wearables

R. Stevens’ geek-and-hipster-centric webcomic Diesel Sweeties has an interesting term for Google Glass:

Click to see the full comic.

“Borg mullet.” Heh.

Here’s a little goodie from my previous job that you might find useful. It’s The BYOD Baker’s Dozen, a “laundry list” white paper that I wrote in an afternoon for Rogers’ Managed Mobility Services, and it lists the 13 things that you need to do to help ensure that the Bring Your Own Device program that you’re implementing at your company actually works. Rogers now offers it in exchange for a little contact info and you can download it from them, or you can always go to my LinkedIn profile, where you’ll find it under “Chief Technology Officer, Comprehensive Technology Solutions / Top Right Corner”.

Here’s a quick summary of The BYOD Baker’s Dozen, which says that if you’re implementing BYOD at your company, do the following:

1. Pick supported platforms first, then choose devices from those platforms.
2. Require employees to lock their devices with passcodes.
3. Enable device location, remote lock, and remote wipe on all BYOD devices.
4. Use mobile device management.
5. Increase your network capacity.
6. Secure your network.
7. Take inventory of all the devices on your network.
8. Specify how BYOD devices will be supported by IT.
9. Define approved apps.
10. Consider cloud solutions carefully.
11. Teach your employees about BYOD security, best practices, and how to make the best use of approved apps.
12. Learn from your employees’ experiences with their mobile devices.
13. Develop a mobile device policy.

This is one of the more unusual tablet accessories I’ve seen, and I don’t think you’re going to see it at the Apple Store or Best Buy anytime soon.

At first, I thought that a bidet sprayer/toilet paper stand was an odd accessory for a tablet until I remembered the 7″ Kross Smartpad tablet I pity-bought at a charity auction. It has a resistive (read: terrible) touchscreen, holds its charge for a mere 45 minutes, runs Android 2.3, and most importantly for this accessory, is completely ass.

In programming, we call this the model-view-conformer pattern.

Back in September 2011, I posted this image in an article titled We’ll Know For Sure Next Year, and it’s been getting a lot of hits lately:

I think the graphic is wrong in a few ways — I thought 3.1 was only acceptable, 95 was good, and 98 was “meh” — and it’s missing Windows 2000, which I thought was good. It’s put Windows 8 under “meh”, as I always kick it into desktop mode, which effectively makes it Windows 7 with a couple of improvements and a downgraded Start menu. What’s your take?

Graph adapted from Stratechery. Click to see it at full size.

Last week’s post on Ben Thompson’s blog, Stratechery, looks at the prevailing wisdom that the steady decline in PC sales from 2010 on were caused by tablets and longer PC lifecycles and adds a third cause: Windows 8. While the drop in 2010 — the year the iPad came out — is the most dramatic, the next most precipitous drop came in the wake of Windows 8’s release. Thompson writes:

In other words, instead of alleviating the problems facing PCs – no reason to buy – Windows 8′s increased complexity added a reason not to buy. That was certainly the case in my family: in early 2013, when my father asked me for advice on a Windows computer, I found myself advising him to seek out Windows 7. Were he to have had a suitable computer, I likely would have advised him to do nothing at all.

It’s difficult to see where Microsoft goes from here; contrary to what you might expect, there is still minimal overlap between Windows 8 and Windows Phone, meaning apps made for one are incompatible with the other. Abandoning either means effectively starting from zero in that respective form factor – and pissing off a lot of partners. Yet there’s little question in my mind that the touch environment is hastening the decline of PCs suited for the Windows desktop, even as the desktop ruins what is honestly a rather delightful tablet experience.

My experience is pretty much the same as Thompson’s. I’ve helped a number of friends and family upgrade existing computers or buy new ones, and most of them, even those who bought touchscreen-equipped machines, have resisted Windows 8, considering the interface formerly known as Metro to be useless (if you’ll pardon the term) “window dressing”. Those who went with Windows 8 have generally kept it in desktop mode, and once Windows 8.1 came out, they followed the steps to make it boot into desktop mode and bypass “Modern UI” altogether.

As of this writing, Windows 8.1 is running on fewer than 25 million PCs at this moment, one of which is my sidekick machine, a ThinkPad T430. Considering that it’s a free upgrade and fixes a number of issues with Windows 8, this number is bad. Even Microsoft’s biggest non-“blue badge” evangelist, Paul Thurrot, has used the word “disaster” for this figure. In comparison, Samsung sold half as many Android-based tablets during Q4 2013, and Apple moved 25 million iPads in the same period.

The next Windows, whose codename is “Threshold” and whose official name will be Windows 9, is expected to ship in April 2015, one year after the upcoming Build conference. Microsoft’s biggest non-“blue badge” evangelist, Paul Thurrot, is already singing its praises in a number of posts:

• Microsoft to Take Windows to the “Threshold”
• Further Changes Coming in Windows “Threshold”
• Big Changes Are Coming to Windows
• “Threshold” to be Called Windows 9, Ship in April 2015

For Windows 9, if the pattern holds true, it should be “good”. Until it comes out, I’ll have to say the same thing about Windows 8 back in 2011: We’ll know for sure next year.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Click to the see the source.

You’ve probably heard of Angelhack founder Greg Gopman’s Facebook rant about the homeless in San Francisco, which included this neo-Dickensian gem:

The difference is in other cosmopolitan cities, the lower part of society keep to themselves. They sell small trinkets, beg coyly, stay quiet, and generally stay out of your way. They realize it’s a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that’s okay.

…and this one:

You can preach compassion, equality, and be the biggest lover in the world, but there is an area of town for degenerates and an area of town for the working class. There is nothing positive gained from having them so close to us. It’s a burden and a liability having them so close to us. Believe me, if they added the smallest iota of value I’d consider thinking different, but the crazy toothless lady who kicks everyone that gets too close to her cardboard box hasn’t made anyone’s life better in a while.

It’s a little odd that Gopman complained about the homeless, since he may have done his own little part to exacerbate their situation. SF Weekly reports that the fratboy from Florida (why am I not surprised?) first moved to San Francisco to get closer to the tech scene, he lived in city-subsidized affordable housing meant for low-income families, despite being single and not low-income.

Gopman has since deleted his Facebook post, but thanks to sites like Valleywag, it’ll remain online for some time.

Screen shot of Peter Shih’s Medium post. Click to see at full size.

Gopman’s polemic was echo of an earlier post on Medium made by Celery founder Peter Shih, where he wrote a laundry list of his top ten peeves about San Francisco. One of them, of course, was the homeless:

San Francisco has some of the craziest homeless people I have ever seen in my life. Stop giving them money, you know they just buy alcohol and drugs with it right? Next time just hand them a handle of vodka and a pack of cigarettes, it’ll save everyone some trouble. I’m seriously tempted to start fucking with people and pay for homeless guys to ride the Powell street cable cars in the middle of the day, that ought to get the city’s attention.

Shih wasn’t afraid to extend his rant into other areas, including the women of San Francisco for being, whom he castigated for being, as he oh-so-charmingly put it, “49ers”:

No, not the football team, they’re great. I’m referring to all the girls who are obviously 4’s and behave like they are 9’s. Just because San Francisco has the worst Female to Male ratio in the known universe doesn’t give you the right to be a bitch all the time.

Like Gopman, once word about his post started getting around, Shih also deleted his screed. Unlike Gopman, but like Tommy Wiseau (who realized that people went to see his film The Room not because it was good, but because it was so, so bad), Shih retconned his post as a satirical piece.

This sort of behaviour is almost expected from tech leaders. From Steve Jobs to Bill Gates to Larry Ellison to Eric Raymond to Richard Stallman, many of these people exhibit some strong toolbag tendencies and are perhaps a lab accident away from becoming a supervillain. The problem is that our industry’s Bill Lumberghs’ behaviours are trickling down to the Peters, Michaels, and Sameers, if this Craigslist ad is any indication:

Click the Craigslist ad screen shot to see it at full size.

Here’s the text of the ad:

$1400 Bedroom in North Beach Apartment (north beach / telegraph hill)

The Room: Your room is an unfinished room with closet space. You move in early February. Rent includes utilities and Internet.

The Setup: The two of us will share an apartment with one bathroom, small living area, and full kitchen. Each of us will have our own room. There are laundry facilities in the building.

Me: I am a professional who works in FiDi. I am clean. I don’t cook. I wake up before 7 a.m. and sleep before 10 p.m. I don’t smoke or engage in drug use.

You: You are quiet. You don’t talk on the phone. You don’t listen to music except through headphones. You work a lot. You spend most of your time at work or with a significant other whom you never bring to the apartment. You don’t cook regularly. You sleep early. You don’t smoke or engage in drug use. You are clean.

Our Roommate dynamic: We don’t talk during the work week. We barely talk on weekends. I passively aggressively punch you in the face if you leave dirty dishes in the sink. We clean the apartment every week. Maybe you have access to HBO, and we watch Game of Thrones in complete silence.

If interested, please e-mail your resume, proof of salary (e.g. paystub or offer letter), and the following information:

1. Gender
2. Annual Salary
3. Employer
4. Bedtime
5. Wake Time
6. Number of Times Per Week You Anticipate Cooking
7. Reason for Moving

There’s a possibility that this may be a little social experiment rather than a genuine post, but having travelled ’round those parts recently for a number of interviews and gatherings, there’s enough in the ad to suggest it’s genuine. Ah, Poe’s Law…

Thanks to Tod Gemeuse for the heads-up about the ad!